Manila, Philippines, May 29, 2015 – Experience is the best teacher. So public school teachers go to the extent of spending even their own money to conduct experiments and projects that bring to life Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lessons for the sake of their students.
Come June 15 to July 15, 2015, the community and motoring public can help these educators obtain learning-by-doing projects for their students through the recently launched Caltex Fuel Your School (FYS) program.
“During this time, we will donate one peso (P1) for every 4-liter fuel purchase made by motorists at participating Caltex stations in Metro Manila. We aim to hit P5 million in this campaign month. The donation will then be turned over to our project partner American Chamber Foundation of the Philippines (ACFP) that is tasked to qualify submitted project proposals as well as the purchase of qualified STEM classroom projects,” announced Peter Morris, country chairman of Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI).
The Department of Education (DepEd) of the Philippines as FYS project partner shortlisted the 33 highest-need public senior high schools in Metro Manila as beneficiaries qualified to receive a maximum of P150,000 per school in STEM classroom materials.
FYS comes just in time to fortify the STEM subject aptitudes of incoming Grades 11 and 12 in 2016 for public schools as set in the K-12 program of DepEd. FYS project partners estimate that at least 700 teachers and 9,000 students from the senior-ready public schools will benefit from the FYS program.
Driving FYS through Social Media
Aside from supporting the program via fueling at Caltex, the FYS partners also invite the public to help the schools by viewing and liking their favorite schools’ qualified projects as posted on the Caltex Philippines Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CaltexPhilippines or via www.caltexfuelyourschoolph.com . The FYS leaderboard in the website will be regularly updated to reflect ranking of the projects that generated the most to least likes. Projects will be funded in the order of their July 15 leaderboard rank. The top three projects with the most number of fan likes at the end of the FYS campaign will each receive an additional brand new laptop as bonus prize.
The program also encourages social media users to help the schools get their STEM wish list by promoting their projects online. Chevron, for instance, has an ongoing FYS awareness volunteer campaign among its employees, retailers and other business partners by urging them to create selfies and groupies using FYS props and posting them as their Facebook profile photos during the FYS campaign period and sending the FYS PH link so their own FB friends can also vote.
“It has been one of my dreams to see my students in a well-equipped laboratory room where they conduct experiments, manipulate the microscopes and discuss their findings. I’m just so glad this can become a reality through Caltex Fuel Your School,” said Cecilia Santiago, science teacher from M. Araullo High School in Manila.
Caltex Fuel Your School is part of Chevron’s Energy for Learning Initiative, which supports educational programs that create opportunities for individuals to acquire new knowledge, gain new skills and be exposed to different ways of thinking.
For more information about Caltex Fuel Your School, visit http://www.caltex.com/ph/fuelyourschool or contact the FYS hotline at 399-2505. Vote and help promote a FYS classroom project via Caltex Philippines Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CaltexPhilippines.
